I promise I haven’t lost my club-girl persona and I promise I won’t wear hiking boots to the bar, but I can’t deny that my closet has a little (okay, a lot) more Northface than it did last year. I’ve totaled a lot of miles, and it all began at the beginning of the pandemic when my partner quit smoking and I started to lose my mind. We needed to get moving. And we needed to get moving fast. But with nowhere to really move, we decided to head outdoors.
Palos Park Woods Recommended: Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center to Palos Trail System Length: 7.8 mile loop
Starved Rock (but going the other way) Recommended: Start from Council Overhang and head west Length: 14 miles
I didn’t feel like I was in the midwest when I hiked Devil’s Lake. I’m used to steep hills—like vertical—straight up, with lots of elevation. While Devil’s Lake didn’t check off all of these boxes, it did gift me with lots of steep climbing, incredible lake views, and boulders—tons of ‘em.
Tip: Don’t underestimate the difficulty of hiking in sand. In the winter, it’s a lot easier.
Starting at Buckingham Fountain, folks can walk 210 miles around the perimeter of the city through Chicago’s parks, lagoons, prairie lands, and surprisingly expansive trail systems.
